Today I finished up the F-864E cable anchor bracket. It did not take long I just had to radius the corner and drill a pilot hole. It turns out a nickel is about the correct radius, the plans call for the bracket to be 2 1/8 at its widest point. There will be several holes on the short side of the bracket but those will get drilled using the console as a drill guide.
Since I was on a roll with fabricating parts I moved onto the F-712 tail tie down block. The funny part is when I picked up my first kit (non-matched hole) the tie down included was all fabricated. The matched hole kit I swapped into, did not come with the tie down or the step, since I had inventoried the other kit before taking it back to Van’s I knew I needed these parts. They did not know why they were not included but they sent them along. Well the tie down came as rough stock not pre-fabricated so that is why I am making it today.
It was an easy job to make the tie down, drilling it in-place was not. Thankfully I had an angle drill I had picked up on eBay, but even that was a tight fit. A flexible attachment would have been better. Well, after I was done I made a call to Van’s because I had a ¾ inch hole in the bottom of the fuselage just aft of the F-811 bulkhead (see picture). Looking at the plans this is a requirement for a -8 since the tail gear needs a bolt access here. I wanted to know what was up. No step, no tail tie down now holes for the -8, it is obvious to me that this kit was set up to be a -8. Talking with Gus the first few matched-hole kits off the line had some growing pains and they probably started to make this kit as a -8 then figured out the error and finished it up as a -8A. Not sure why I got one I only picked up this kit last summer.
Cable anchor bracket
Tie down drilled and clecoed
Hole on left side should not be there for a -8A? I will have to get a plug for this hole.
